Pre-tests are falsified... Just took the MCQ test to be approved as Translator (French to English). I have been reading, writing and speaking both languages for 35 yrs. And been doing professional technical translations for the past 10 years. I got only a 1 out of 5 correct... either i am completely inept or their tests are biased/ wrong.

I used Gengo to once translate a letter… I used Gengo to once translate a letter from Eng->Japanese that I wanted to send to my girlfriend's company about their poor COVID work-from-office rules. I received the translation in less than 24 hours and upon showing it to a JP friend they said it was mostly perfect. There are lots of negative reviews on this site, but this is my own experience

Machine translations at human prices This company is selling machine translation at human translation prices. If you actually speak the language natively you'll understand this when you see translations for words like "Sign up" directly converted into phonetic foreign borrow words like サインアップする instead of the natural and correct translation of 登録する. I rejected the translations stating this, but Gengo staff said my rejection wasn't valid and that these were "quality translations." AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS.

Bad for everyone Imagine that you're translating subtitles to a video, and the person speaking is stuttering, starting and ending a sentence, changing tense, etc. You translate it in line with the tone of the original translation, as well you should. Then the Gengo review comes in and marks your translation as "awkward". "Well, of course, it's awkward, because the original is awkward," you say. The Gengo support team dismisses you with a repetitive statement of, "As a translator, it's your job to make it not awkward." So, when the original is, "I...I mean...I don't know, I wasn't...I couldn't have...I'm not sure I..." according to Gengo, your translation should be: "I don't know." Anything else will be marked as "awkward". This is a terrible experience for a translator AND a bad result for the customer.

Be prepared to pay for nothing Requested a translation from Gengo for which I had to pay in advance. Then told there was no translator willing/able to take it on because it was too difficult but they were going to keep the money anyway as a "credit" in my account! Alternatively I could pay more for their premium service. Not on your nelly. Will stick to reputable/serious translation agencies in the future or Google Translate rather than throw my money out of the window.